The year of 2009 is quickly coming to a close here in Designora’s home base of California. For many of our readers, you’re already enjoying 2010. The first 11 months have seen some wonderful posts from our various counterparts around the World Wide Web, and the 12th month of December 2009 is no exception.

We’ve kept track of some of our favorite design sites, blogs, and resources. December proved to be a fantastic month in the world of web design and graphic design, and we’d like to share that with you. And hey, if you have anything that you feel was left out that was published between Dec 1-31, 2009, then please feel free to share the safe link (in addition to why you love the link) in the comment section below.

Happy New Year to you! May it be one full of success for all.

Tutorials for Design

• 45+ Truly Stunning Digital Painting Tutorials via Naldz Graphics
• 5 Extremely Simple Ways To Add Page Curl To Your Website via Web Design Booth
• Coding a Band Website Created in Photoshop via Six Revisions
• Advanced Power Tips for WordPress Template Developers: Reloaded via Smashing Magazine
• 24 Captivating Digital Painting Tutorials via PelFusion

Web Design Tools

• 7 Tools To Optimize The Speed of Your Website via Web Design Booth
• 7 jQuery Cheatsheets For Every Designer & Developer to Have via Tut Zone
• 5 Popular Online Color Tools Compared And Analyzed via Pxleyes
• 18 Essential Books Every Freelance Designer Needs to Read via Design Was Here
• Create Online Wireframes With MockingBird via N. Design Studio
• 50 Best Free Tools To Create Perfect Color Combinations via Smashing Apps

Great Graphics

• 65 Creative And Stylish Footer Designs of 2009 via 1st Web Design
• 20 Famous and Not-so-famous Logo Design Galleries via Logo Blog
• 35 Epic and Awesome Wallpapers via Designzzz
• Breathtaking Digital Art by Kerem Beyit via Netastica
• Happy Holidays and New 2010 Year via Dark Roasted Blend
• Industrial Design: 80+ Awesome Product Designs via Designrfix

Photography

• Excellent Photography by Thomas Wuhrer via Tut Zone
• It’s Istanbul not Constantinople via Flickr Blog
• 18 Astonishing Examples of Waterfall Photography via PelFusion
• Doron Stein’s Fashion and Model Photography via Wix Blog
• Stunning Fireworks Photos via Smashing Magazine
• 40 Stunning Tilt-Shift Images of Urbanity via Inspiredology via Punto Geek

Design Related Freebies

• 10 Awesome Free Hand-Drawn Fonts via Paper Leaf
• 30+ Free Adobe Illustrator Pattern Sets via Naldz Graphics
• Free Vector Icons: Panda Social Network Icons via Six Revisions
• 45 Mega Cool and Free Gothic Fonts via W3 Magazine
• 50 Beautiful Free Icon Sets For Your Next Design via Smashing Magazine

Inspiration

• 30 Examples of Beautiful Portfolio Designs via BlueBlots
• Christmas Color Legends via Colour Lovers
• London Portrays Past and Future of Digital Art via New York Times
• Innovative Mirrors Designed as Cursors via Walyou
• Kantele Vase is a Vegetal Attraction via GadgetHer
• 35 Exceptional Logo Rebranding Of 2009 For Your Inspiration via Smashing Apps
• Amazing Industrial Design via Abduzeedo
• Trying to Be Responsible and Cutting-Edge, Too via New York Times

Just In Case You Missed It…

Some of our favorite posts of 2009, straight from Designora.

The most popular post of the year, The Best HDR Photos of 2009, also proved to be the most controversial – creating great debate on what HDR is, and what we can call good photography anyway … and can one person’s idea of something amazing and artistic be another’s item of disgust? We also had a lot of discussion in this regards on The Best of 2009 in Flash Design. As anyone who has been around the Internet for a while now knows, calling anything “the best” or “the greatest” always brews controversy. With this in mind, if you have any ideas now or later on, you’re always more than welcome to submit them in simple form or as an article proposal via the Contact page.

Tutorials are a fantastic way to pick up some new techniques or brush up on the basics. At Designora, we like to give options to our readers, and we know many are at different levels in the various design mediums. For some great font tutorials, start from The Rudiments of Typography, take a peek at 6 Different Ways to Make Your Text and Images Glow, or Create Your Own Amazing Font on Photoshop. The Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4) is a fantastic way to create some wonderful designs. Give Your Objects a Glowing Effect by using streaks, Partially Grayscale a Photo, and consider giving your photo a Vintage Finish in Photoshop.

One of the artistic mediums most used around the world is that of photography. A great photo is only as good as the eye that finds it and has the equipment to capture it, such as Edward Olive, through whom we see Madrid Through the Eyes of a Hasselblad. Since, through photography, we can see our own space in a different light, it is only appropriate to mention that a great way to Focus In is with Macro Photography, to get down to those little details that make up part of a larger whole. Also, do check out some Explosive Infrared Photography, which showcases ‘false-color’ photographs. And to warm yourself up through the remainder of the winter (or to chill out – take a look inside the post), travel virtually to some of the most Beautiful Desert Landscapes around the globe.

Web designers and design aficionados alike can always use more tools to enhance, improve, or introduce new design. Included in this are Social Communities, Networks, and Social Voting websites and 5 of the Top Design Podcasts. Don’t forget to find out which tool’s Newly Upgraded Features allows you to Make Awesome Flash Sites at Any Level. Brushes are very useful tools when it comes to design. Some awesome brushes for Photoshop we’ve found are 100+ Abstract Brushes, 360+ Free Flora and Fauna Brushes, and Beautiful Brush Sets to Create a Perfect Night Sky in Photoshop. We’ve even given you 10 fantastic Grunge GIMP Brush Sets, for those that choose the freeware over Adobe’s CS4.

Beautiful design surrounds us, and it’s great to take a moment to appreciate the artwork there. 30 Intriguing Samurai Warrior Graphics, 50+ Airline Advertisements for Your Inspiration, Android Awesomeness: The Google ‘Droid & Friends in 70+ Designs, 40 Gorgeous Fantasy Wallpapers to Spice Up your Laptop.  Cases in point – Nuclear Art: Frightening and Fascinating Artwork Expressing Human Anxiety and the Street Art that Goes Beyond Banksy to capture the everyday emotion of a nation. Of course, there’s the infamous Balloon Boy incident and the imagery which came around and immediately immortalized him in pop culture history.

Take a look at any of the above posts, and feel free to browse around Designora. Have a great New Year’s Eve and Day!